Day 1 - 7th of March - Flew from Melbourne to LAX. Good flight, heaps of leg room, 3 seats to share between Phil and myself so made it very comfortable, not to mention the lion's share of VB and Gin & Tonics. Landed in L.A at about 7am, and got the free hostel shuttle to the Adventurers Backpackers in Inglewood. Very interesting place, everyone we've spoken to has said that they would never stay there as it is very dangerous, we survived without any issues. We checked into the hostel, had a quick bite to eat and then headed off to Santa Monica. Pretty easy to get there, caught a bus for $1 which dropped us off in the heart of town. Unfortunately it was a little cold and overcast but still a beautiful place, we wandered down to the pier which has its own little amusement park on it and then went back into the main drag and had our first American burgers at Hooters, was a bit of fun. After lunch we picked up a pre-paid sim from T-Mobile on a pretty decent setup with unlimited data which is very handy for keeping in touch with everyone back home. We then headed back down to the beach, hired a couple of bikes and went for a cruise down to Venice Beach, as its just turned Spring over here there wasn't too much happening, but come summer the place will be packed no doubt and be incredible, reminded me of Lorne a bit in that sense. At the end of the ride it was becoming late so we jumped back on the bus and headed back to the hostel for some dinner, which was an interesting experience. We weren't too sure where to go for dinner as the area was very sketchy so we didn't venture too far from the hostel, there was a Chinese take-away store just around the corner from us, but as we were about to go in we saw a guy being chased out of there by the owner being hit around the head with a broom, we walked inside and there was blood everywhere, needless to say we left and went to another place. This turned out to be a blessing as we ended up at Norma's diner where we enjoyed some incredible Mexican food. The serving size was ridiculous and I got nowhere near being close to finishing the meal, but even so we had to try some apple pie, and that was a very good decision. Yet again it was ridiculously big, but so good I forced myself to finish the entire thing. Then it was back to the hostel for a good night's sleep.

Day 2 - 8th of March - Woke up feeling pretty refreshed after day 1's activities and the flight over, so we decided that we should make the most of it and go for an extended bike ride along Santa Monica Beach and Venice. So after breakfast we jumped on the bus and headed over. It only cost $18 to hire the bikes for the entire day so we didn't have much of a choice, jumped on them and headed along the coast. It was a windy day again so the legs definitely got a workout when we were heading north, but thankfully the bike path ended after 4-5 kms so we had to turn around and got to enjoy it as a tail wind. We rode all the way through Venice Beach and ended up winding our way through some pretty incredible housing estates with some monstrous buildings looking out over the water. After a while the bike path ended and we had to turn around and battle the head wind again back to the bike store. We got back just before 6 so hoped back on the bus and made our way back to Inglewood, but in an attempt to avoid a similar situation to the previous night Phil and I decided we would hire a car and go for a bit of a spin to Downtown and check out the scene. After some very annoying internet booking we finally managed to pick up a little Ford Focus from Budget and so our first driving adventure in America had begun. After freshening up back at the hostel, we hit the highway and made our way into downtown Los Angeles. Thankfully Phil was more than happy to take the wheel for the first attempt, which not only gave me more of an opportunity to drink, but also to get accustomed to driving backwards. Once in downtown we made our way towards Philippe's Orginal, after a strong recommendation from Nadine Van Groodveld, and had some pretty good sandwiches (surrounded by what appeared to be the entire L.A.P.D) then it was off to find a little drinking hole. We went for a little bit of a wander to see what was good and came across a bar called Bar 107, which was a bit of a Sportsbar and seemed like a pretty good place to start off. Had a couple of drinks there, watched Kobe singlehandedly get the Lakers over the line against the Raptors then went for another walk to see what else we would find. Strangely enough it was a homeless man who pointed us in the right direction as to where to go next, after he asked Phil to change his four quarters into a single Dollar. Phil accepted, handed over the note, was then serenaded by said homeless man, before telling us that the place we needed to be was on 6th Street, so we took his advice and headed off, unfortunately for Phil though he was four quarters short. We got to 6th Street and the homeless man was not wrong, there were bars everywhere and it was a lot of fun. We sat up shop in one little boutique beer bar which had 26 different beers and started sampling their wares. After some very nice beers we made our way to a number of different establishments and one or two more drinks then called it a night and made our way back to good old Inglewood.